


Party Crashers

by GemmaRose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Future Fic, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gate Crashing, Gen, Memorials, Returning to Earth, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 18:23:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8295556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: After four years in space, the Paladins of Voltron get the chance to return to Earth on a diplomatic mission, introducing their homeworld to the Voltron Alliance. But just because it’s First Contact for Earth doesn’t mean that they’re not going to be immature little shits about it.Crossposted from the Voltron kink meme.





	

Lance had to admit, he was excited. Four and a half years in space, and they were finally going back to Earth. Only for a week, while Allura and a handful of delegates made Earth an official part of the Voltron Alliance, but honestly Lance wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle more than a week. The last time they’d gotten the chance to take a break on an Earth-like world, he’d started itching to be back on the castle after three days. But that hadn’t been Earth, hadn’t been _home_.

“I can’t wait to see Veradera again.” he grinned, leaning on the back of his chair and grinning at the sight in front of them. They’d wormholed out into one of the gaps in Saturn’s rings, and even after everything he’d seen out in the far flung reaches of the universe the sight filled him with awe.

“I’ve got the internet up.” Pidge said without looking up from their laptop, as if Lance hadn’t raced to check his various social media accounts the second his phone connected. “You could use Google street view.”

“It’s not the same.” he sighed, straightening his arms and doing and forward flip into his chair just because he could.

“Did you know there’s going to be a memorial for us?” Keith said suddenly, drawing everyone’s attention. Even Shiro looked away from debating with Allura about where to make first contact, eyebrows high on his forehead.

“A memorial?” their leader asked, circling around to stand behind Keith and look over his shoulder.

“It’s gonna be right after our Garrison class graduates.” Keith’s ears flicked back, the angle more amusement than tension. “They’re honouring the Kerberos crew too.”

Pidge’s fingers flew over their screen, and a devious smile crept onto their face. Lance knew that smile, it was the one that usually preceded the youngest Paladin coming up with a strategy that was going to go horribly wrong halfway through and end in more explosions than planned.

“Oh no.” Hunk said. “No, no, whatever you’re thinking, _please_ don’t share it.”

“Now why would you ask me to do that?” Pidge smirked.

“Yeah, Hunk, why would you ask that?” Lance grinned, crossing his legs and leaning forward in his seat.

“Because when Pidge gets that look, I’m the one who ends up almost getting blown to pieces!” Hunk cried, throwing his hands in the air and sending something flying off his screen towards the ceiling, where it vanished.

“Hunk, we’re going back to Earth.” Shiro said consolingly, though he was smiling a little bit. “There won’t be any explosions involved. Right?” he levelled a stern look at Pidge, who nodded quickly.

“No explosions, I swear.” Pidge held up three fingers pressed together. “Scout’s honour.”

“That’s what you said before we blew the hell out of that galra base last month.” Keith said flatly.

“Okay, it’s hardly _my_ fault that those guys had cargo bays full of explosives. It was an accident waiting to happen!”

“Enough.” Shiro said, and Lance swallowed his giggles. “Pidge, what idea did you get?”

“We land at the ceremony.” they grinned. “There’ll be a ton of media coverage, and I can probably hijack their signals if they try to stop broadcasting. There’s no way the government will be able to keep _that_ quiet.”

“Why would they attempt to, keep it quiet?” Allura asked, her brow crinkling in confusion.

“Oh, right.” Lance braced his hands on his shins, right about where they crossed. “You’ve only met us and the Holts.” he felt his mouth pull up in a wry grin. “Not to brag, but we’re kinda better people than your average politician.”

“Oh dear.” Allura frowned. It was kinda funny, actually. She obviously hadn’t thought about the possibility of intolerant humans before. Which, given her sample size and quality, wasn’t really that surprising.

“Yeah, given Area 51...” Keith trailed off. Lance snorted. Of course Keith would believe in that old conspiracy theory.

“It’s not a bad idea, actually.” Shiro said slowly. “The Galaxy Garrison is an international organisation, and there’s plenty of space to land the Lions without damaging anyone’s property. Plus, Pidge and Lance make a good point about media coverage.”

Hunk groaned, and hung his head in his hands. “If anything explodes, it’s Pidge’s fault.” he said with an air of finality. Lance grinned, and considered sending Amalia an email. Ooh, even better. He’d send an anon comment to her blog to make sure she was watching the memorial thing when they gatecrashed it, assuming his whole family wasn’t invited by virtue of him being one of the people being memorialised. He was gonna get smacked so hard when he got home to Veradera, but by god it was going to be _worth it_.

\---

“Okay, remember the plan.” Shiro said as they glided down through Earth’s atmosphere. Lance rolled his eyes.

“How could we _forget_ the plan?” he asked rhetorically. “We’ve only gone over it, like, a billion times.”

“A few dozen, at most.” Keith said, and Lance rolled his eyes again, this time directing it at Keith instead of just into the team’s latent bond.

“Whatever. We all know what we’re doing.”

“Can you just shut up for once?” Keith snapped.

“Lance, Keith, if you can’t act professional we’ll land in secondary formation and you two will stay in your Lions.”

“Shutting up.” Lance said as they started descending towards the Garrison. Pidge was feeling apprehensive, and a bit guilty, and Lance made a mental note to ask them about that later. They soared over the crowd from behind, and Blue lashed her tail as they zipped over the stage where Iverson was now quite decidedly no longer giving his speech. They flew a good few miles out before curving into a wide turn, and once all five Lions were pointed at the Garrison, they roared.

“Pidge.” Shiro said sternly, and Lance couldn’t help but grin.

“C’mon, we wanna look badass, right?” Hunk cajoled.

Shiro sighed, and Lance felt the now-familiar pang of unsurprised disappointment. “Lions on autopilot, Paladins. Launch on my mark.”

Lance nodded, and patted Blue’s console before heading to her launch room. The bike was ready, and he settled astride it as Blue set her paws down on Earth for the first time in far too long.

“Launch.” Shiro said a few endless seconds later, and Lance gunned it as soon as the floor under him vanished. With his visor on full he couldn’t smell anything, and he wasn’t breathing Earth air, but as he tore across the baked earth his heart soared anyways. Hunk and Pidge were similarly elated, though Keith and Shiro were more focused on the mission.

Keith curved gently towards the stairs which would take them up onto the stage Shiro was currently standing on, but Lance waited until the last second before yanking the handlebars sideways. He skidded, and almost wrecked, but the bike righted itself and he made the stage just a second after Keith. Blue purred in the back of his head as he screeched to a stop, and he dismounted with a flip over the handlebars. He stuck the landing right in his spot, just behind and to the right of Keith.

Lance almost reached for his bayard, but remembered at the last second that Shiro had shot down that idea and so just folded his arms behind the small of his back and planted his feet at shoulder width. With their bikes lined up along the back of the stage and all of them standing at ease, they definitely looked like badasses. And with the nice neat little braid he’d wrangled Pidge’s hair into, the only one of them who’d have to worry about helmet hair later was Keith, whose mullet was frankly unredeemable anyways.

“Showoff.” Keith muttered, barely a breath over the comms. Lance resisted the urge to flip him off, but he was sure Keith felt the intent.

Iverson finally regained his composure, and gestured for the mostly-for-show guards to aim at them. Lance was _pretty_ sure their armour could take a bullet, but it would definitely hurt like a bitch.

“Who are you?” Iverson demanded, and Lance couldn’t help snorting with laughter. He managed to remain still, somehow, but their bond was awash with amusement. “This is military property, and if you refuse to answer I will be forced to assume you mean these civilians harm.”

Shiro raised a hand, silencing Iverson effortlessly, and Lance knew he was grinning like a loon but as long as his visor was polarized it didn’t matter. Shiro turned his head towards Keith, and Lance held his breath. Keith reached up, ducked his head, and pulled his helmet off. When he looked back up, ears perked forward, his face was absolutely expressionless. Which was, if anybody asked, _entirely_ the reason they chose to have Keith be the first one to reveal himself.

“We are the Paladins of Voltron, Defenders of the Universe.” he said, projecting pretty well. The parents in the stands probably couldn’t hear him, but the graduates certainly did. “We come in peace, in the name of Queen Allura of the Altean people.” unfortunately, he was also pretty clearly reciting a script.

“Aww, how cute. They’re trying to stop broadcasting.” Pidge muttered into their comm. “Rosie’s jacked their signals, we’re good to go.”

Shiro pulled his helmet off and ran a hand over his hair in what Lance had long learnt was a purely reflexive motion, his face remarkably smooth for someone who’d been sniggering under his breath just a minute ago. “I am the Black Paladin, Head of Voltron.” he said, and his voice carried much farther than Keith’s had. Pidge must’ve patched his comm into the mic system, or something. “My name is Takashi Shirogane.”

The entire audience seemed to gasp as one, and Lance giggled. Keith elbowed him, and when Hunk and Pidge reached for their helmets Lance pulled his off as well. He tucked it under his arm, and gave the cameras a cheery wave. Keith rolled his eyes. Lance mentally flipped him off again.

“Queen Allura sent us with a message for this planet.” Shiro said, standing just as tall and confident as he’d been on the front page of the newspaper the day the Kerberos mission launched. “You are not alone. There is an alliance of planets dedicated to preserving peace in the universe, and Queen Allura would like to extend an invitation to you, to Earth.” the shuttle touched down silently, invisibly, and Lance was glad he was already smiling because there was no way he would’ve been able to keep a straight face knowing what was about to happen.

The cloak dropped with its usual abruptness when the shuttle door opened, and Shiro turned to bow to Allura as the rest of them snapped to attention. Lance fought to stop smiling, but it didn’t quite work. If Pidge’s latest robot friend had done all they said it would, then this was streaming on most major news stations and a fair number of websites as well. There would be _gifs_.

Allura wasn’t even dressed up, but from the frenzy the media seemed to be in and the very loud whispers of the graduates she looked more than regal enough to be believed. Then again, her usual dress and circlet and mostly-loose hair had been enough to convince him she was a princess when they first met, so it wasn’t really that surprising. She inclined her head towards them, and Shiro turned back to face forward while the rest of them resumed standing at ease.

“Iverson, I presume?” Alura said with an easy smile, her voice coming through the speakers as a handful of alien diplomats came out of the shuttle to stand behind her. Those guys were dressed up in brand new space-tuxedos, or whatever their cultural equivalents were, and still Allura’s every-day dress managed to be the fanciest thing onstage. She extended a hand, and Iverson shook it dumbly. “I’ve been informed that it is traditional to bring a gesture of good faith to these types of meetings.” she smiled, every inch the politician.

“I- suppose.” Iverson said slowly, obviously not knowing quite what to make of this.

“Then allow me to return to you two of your people, taken as prisoners of war on a distant moon of your solar system along with one of my Paladins.” she gestured to the shuttle, and it took more restraint than usual for Lance to hold still. He couldn’t see the moment Matt and Mr. Holt stepped out of the shuttle, but a split second later the media section of the crowd fairly _exploded_. He was pretty sure somebody screamed. Seven people missing-presumed-dead, seven people returned safely. Lance wondered what the  Tribuna would have to say about all this.

Shiro gestured for them to relax after a few long seconds, and a second later he turned to address them. “Walk your bikes down to the ground, then have your Lions recall them. After that...” he paused, a fond smile crossing his face. “I’m sure your families are dying to see you again.”

Lance nodded once, in synch with the rest of the Paladins, and turned around to grab his bike by the handlebars and disengage the kickstand. Sure, Allura had some fancy space-name for it, but a kickstand was a kickstand. And once his bike was back en-route to Blue, well... if Amalia was here he was going to be really glad of his armour.

**Author's Note:**

> The Tribuna Lance refers to is the Tribuna de La Habana, a local newspaper from Havana, Cuba. There are definitely emotional reunions had. Lance drags Keith with him to deflect some of the attention away from himself (and b/c Keith has nobody to go to, but shh neither of them is admitting that) but still gets a sucker punch to the gut from Amalia before he gets any hugs. The Holts are all teary messes, but they’re being teary messes together. Shiro gives his parents quick hugs and promises to explain everything later, then goes to help Allura with diplomacy shit. Hunk gets just about smothered in hugs and kisses, and doesn’t complain a bit.


End file.
